PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - FINES propose for delayed flights...USA
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Old 24th Oct 2007, 15:43
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cargo boy
I've only made a few posts so I don't feel the need to order a Personal Title and help support PPRuNe
 
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FFS! Who or what is going to be fined and by whom? At least put some coherence into your post if you want to start discussion.

Are you trying to say that the airlines are going to fine their aircrew for delays? Are the FAA going to fine the aircrew or the airline? Are the airport owners going to fine the airline or the crew? Are the crew going to fine the airport for the delay?

Based on your post, a flying pig could be proposing to fine flight XYZ123 for being more than 15 minutes late off blocks at least 70% of the time! Good luck to the proposer in trying to fine a "flight".

I would rather propose to whoever it is in the US that has some responsibility for controlling waste and unnecessary pollution get their act together and sort out the ground controllers at JFK. Never have I experienced such incompetence. You get some tired sounding woman on the 'ramp' frequency giving you start and push clearance and then told to contact 'ground'. Once on ground you are informed that there will be an indeterminate delay just for taxi out of the ramp, never mind the one or more hour it will take to get to the front of the queue once you start moving.

Whilst they have a 'gate hold' procedure, those of us using the international ramp have to talk to the 'ramp control' who have no co-ordination with 'ground control'. So, you end up sitting there with four engines running and the ground controller berating you for not having listened to the ATIS when, in fact, the ATIS didn't mention any 'ramp hold' procedures in the first place.

To make matters worse, after sitting there at idle, burning fuel at the rate of 2.6 tons an hour, for 15 minutes you ask the ground controller where you are in the queue and how long can we expect before we can join the back of the queue. The response is " at least 20 minutes". So, we ask them to give us some notice before we are due to taxi as we will be shutting down our engines. The ground controller assures us that we will be notified in plenty of time.

Just as we shut off the fuel on the fourth engine, guess what? Yes. We were told to start up and be ready to taxi in 5 minutes! I seriously think that these guys need to spend a bit of time with us on the flight deck to see what is involved.

Add to the above the fact that it can take over an hour to get to your gate after landing at JFK, thanks mainly to the fact that the ground controllers do not liaise with the ramp controllers. So, you have 'ramp control' clearing a/c to push and start to join a queue on the ramp that blocks any inbound a/c from getting anywhere near their gates.

It is just sad to see so many a/c, at least 50 or more, all with their engines running and not moving. If only they had the ability to organise their push and start sequences so that they weren't ending up with so many a/c burning anything between .8 and 2.6 tons of fuel an hour going absolutely nowhere.

Now, who is going to fine someone for not being too economical with other peoples JetA? Where's that darned flying pig when you need him?
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